Things continue to be very busy at work. So yay weekend! I went to the Core Rhythms workout class at the dance studio again today - much better the second time around (starting to get to know the patterns). I predict this will do amazing things for my abs.
In the absence of a real blog post, I give you this link to an amazing little short film. Cool stuff.
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Saturday, February 28, 2009
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Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Perspective:
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Saturday, February 21, 2009
Have I mentioned that I've got about 29 friends who are pregnant?
Okay, it's closer to 5, but still, it's like everyone around me is pregnant, it's kind of alarming. It's also a bit of a pickle for me because it's too many people to craft gifts for. I'm not sure what I'm going to do, maybe craft some stuff and draw names to see who gets what? I dunno. But, I finished one of the gifts today: whoo hoo! It was a sewing project, so it was relatively fast but also a big question mark since I never know if I'll get it to work out (I'm a newbie at sewing). But it did work out, really well. Yay! Pictures of that will come later.... to tide you over, here are a few of another scarf/shawl I finished.
(Scarf is from a pattern from A Little Slice of Life)| 0 comments | | |
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This morning Peter and I went to a new thing at our dance studio - a workout called Core Rhythms. It's like dance + aerobics. A lot of serious hip swivels. It was interesting. I think it will take a few classes to figure out what's going on, but it should help make all those latin dances look more saucy!
We did our halfway progress check for our Bronze I level last week (we did well) and got some instruction in fox trot which has been hugely helpful. Fox trot is a funny dance. It's incredibly boring at first but we can see the advanced people doing a version where they FLY over the dance floor and so we know it can be so much more. I think we just started down the road of so much more. Yay!
To see the core rhythms craziness: here's some swing-based stuff and some samba-based stuff.| 0 comments | | |
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Thursday, February 19, 2009
There's a group in New York City called Improv Everywhere that exists to cause chaos and joy in public places. They're most famous for the Frozen Grand Central Station stunt where 200 'agents' froze in place at the same moment in Grand Central Station and didn't move for 5 minutes (this is now a world-wide event done with flash mobs) - but there are others that are even more quirky and charming.
If you need a smile and a laugh - go poke around their website. I'm an urbanist so I absolutely love that strangers come together for the sole purpose of doing something random and awesome to make other people smile or scratch their head or have a memorable experience.
Some of my favorite "missions" - these make me smile every time I read them:
- Best Buy
- Best Game Ever
- Moebis
- Food Court Musical
- Circle Line Tours
- Look Up More
I promise, reading/watching some of these missions will make your day.| 0 comments | | |
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Sunday, February 15, 2009
Yesterday may have been the most Valentiney day Peter and I have spent. We usually ignore Valentine's day - mandated romance isn't our thing - but our dance studio was having a big party so we went to that and danced, which was lovely. I got to dance a chacha with the studio owner who is the best dancer ever who can lead you through anything even if you know very little, so it's totally a treat to dance with him. (In the past I've gotten to swing and waltz with him - I love it!) After the party we went out to dinner with a bunch of people from dance - it was Peter and 5 girls. Let that be a lesson to guys who make fun of dance classes - guys are totally outnumbered by girls always.
We had a fabulous time and then came home and watched Dexter, a tv show about a loveable serial killer. =)
And today the sun is shining! Weekends are awesome.| 0 comments | | |
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Tuesday, February 10, 2009
The next month at work for me is going to be a fevered pitch of busy, the likes of which I can't bear to fully face. My subgroup at work lost the other 2 junior planner people to other positions in the department (people often leave temporary positions, like ours were, for permanent positions elsewhere). Now the City is implementing a hiring freeze which may mean we can't fill those positions (that's not 100% for sure yet). That would make me the only junior staff member in our group. That's going to be..... intense. I'm already feeling the overflow from 2 other projects just as my main project is heading full steam to the finish line (which means public consultation and final report action).
Anyway, it's good to be busy again - things were quiet for a while. And all the projects are ridiculously interesting. So I actually don't mind. It's good to have intense periods every now and then. I just might not have a lot of blog time left. ;)| 0 comments | | |
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Saturday, February 07, 2009
I snagged some tickets to a figure skating event for Friday night. Thought it would be fun since I've never been to a figure skating competition before. This one was ISU Four Continents Championship(?). We went for the women's free skate. There was a HUGE number of people in the stands there to see someone from South Korea compete - she must be big in the figure skating world. It was awesome - the place erupted whenever she landed a jump. In the end, all I remember is that the Canadian took silver. That's very polite of us. ;)
I'm not a huge figure skating fan, but they do some amazing things out there, so I do find it interesting. I mean, check it out.... they're so bendy... while skating!
One competitor poses for her fans. So cute. (Click photos to biggify.)
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Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Life without TV.... sort of.December marked 1 year in our current apartment. Which means it also marked our first year without tv*. It's easy to forget that this is sort of a weird way to live for many people, because, it's actually pretty normal in my circle of people. I thought it might be worth some reflection though, for people contemplating cutting the cable, so here's how I arrived at this place and how it works for me.I should start by saying I love it... then go back to how it started. I grew up with cable but wasn't a crazy tv fiend. Mom rationed it a bit, we had other things to do, it was just there - in my life but not a huge thing. I went away to university and had no time for tv really... I don't even remember if we had cable. When I graduated, I was paying off my loan and figured, I'd been okay without tv 4 years, why not a few more. Save some money. You don't miss what you don't have. And I wasted enough time watching junk with the 4 fuzzy channels I had via antenna, I did not want more.Being cable-free was easy. Especially when tv on dvd became common. We could rent or buy entire seasons of stuff and watch it when we wanted, totally ad free. Heaven! Now there really was no reason for cable. Or the antenna really. Between the internet and dvds, we could get all the entertainment, news, comedy, educational stuff we wanted. It's kind of cheating because we're not without tv programs, we're just free of the scheduling and ads of tv.... and the danger of sitting down to watch one thing and getting up 4 hours later having watched a lot of junk you didn't mean to because, well, it's just easier to sit there and be passively entertained than to actually do something.The interesting part of breaking the tv addiction was the fact that it really was an addiction. Even with our fuzzy antenna channels I had my regular shows and if we were out doing something I would actually contemplate going home to catch my show. Which is crazy. And when we first moved to our apt, I started out actually kind of sad about the shows I was losing - wondering what was happening with the characters/plotlines on a certain show.... sad that I was out of the loop, I was so used to getting a weekly fix. But, I coped. Then I stopped thinking about it. Entirely. I lived my life. I crafted more. Hung out with Peter more. Started dance lessons. Met up with friends. I did whatever. TV watching became a very particular activity.... much more contained and deliberate, less likely to eat up my time. I realized that I felt a delicious kind of freedom. I no longer cared what various characters were up to - or, I just didn't worry about it since I could always rent the show if I wanted to spend the time to find out. I'm in control now. They're all there waiting for me. I'm just kind of busy now.* Something about our apt blocks all antenna reception. Don't know what. Don't care.| 0 comments | | |
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Monday, February 02, 2009
Today I'm going to share something very exciting with you - BC Hydro's new rate structure (that's our electric company). I really like it. You pay one rate for the first 1350kilowatt hours (!) and then pay a higher rate for all the kilowatt hours above that amount. So - if you can reduce your power consumption to 1350 or less, you'll avoid the higher rate entirely. I'm a big fan of rate structures that stick it to large consumers (who force the power company to find new power sources) and reward conservation.
I just have issue with the 1350kwh number because it seems GINORMOUS. Our last bill clocked us in at 220kwh.... now, I'll grant that we live small and compact and a big family has more power needs (we don't have a washing machine or dishwasher, for example, although we do have 13 computers).... but SIX times the power consumption? Really? What exactly are these people doing? Am I missing a big awesome new hobby that sucks down electricity? Do people have private holodecks* I don't know about? Because, I'd want to know about that.
* Sorry - every now and then the Star Trek fan in me slips out.| 0 comments | | |
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